Recent advances in biosensors for neurodegenerative disease detection

• Detection of amyloid-beta, tau and apolipoprotein in Alzheimer's disease is reviewed.
• Detection of alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's disease is reviewed.
• Detection of prion protein in prion diseases is reviewed.
• Novel materials for improved biosensor performance are discussed.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD) and Prion diseases are known as ‘protein misfolding disorders’ because aggregation prone proteins are postulated to be the underlying causative agents in these diseases. The economic impact of NDDs, including human and non-human costs, are quite staggering and represents a significant public health challenge for nations around the world. Technology development that facilitates early detection of NDDs, is therefore, the need of the hour. Various analytical technologies have been developed to address this challenge, in the hope of evolving effective therapeutic strategies against NDDs. Over the past decade, biosensors based on optical and electrochemical techniques have been at the forefront of this development, thanks to advances in material science such as carbon nanotubes (CNTs), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), and quantum dots (QDs). In this review, we evaluate the most recent advances in optical and electrochemical biosensors for detection of NDDs.